


The Overnight Lock-In

by polkadotplease



Category: Bob's Burgers (Cartoon)
Genre: A little Zeke and Tina, But Focused on Louises Perspective, But mostly Roudise, Canon Compliant, Fluff, Gene and Alex moments, Multi, No Smut, POV Third Person, RATED T ONLY FOR CURSING! Everything else is GENERAL, mentions of crappy parents
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-14
Updated: 2021-01-15
Packaged: 2021-03-12 04:53:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,289
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28754688
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/polkadotplease/pseuds/polkadotplease
Summary: For the first time probably ever, Mr. Frond actually thought of something cool and announced an overnight lock-in at the school tonight. However, despite his clear interest in Chloe, Louise grudgingly accepts to confess her feelings to her best friend at the lock-in.Yes this is shamelessly slightly based on that one episode of iCarly where they have the overnight lock-in. It’s a good episode don’t judge me.
Relationships: Louise Belcher/Rudolph "Regular Sized Rudy" Steiblitz
Comments: 4
Kudos: 16





	1. One

**Author's Note:**

> Hey!!! This is my first time publishing a Bob’s Burgers fic, and so, of course, it’s Roudise. 
> 
> This fic WILL be multi chaptered, and WILL be finished by 01/21/21. It’ll most likely be updated at least once a day between the day of original publication and the 21st.
> 
> IMPORTANT: Squigglies (~) either dictate Louise’s thoughts or Louise’s memories. Typically, if it’s a memory in ~, it’ll have quotations with it, and also be a whole paragraph, but thoughts will almost always be less than a sentence or two. Other characters thoughts are dictated by descriptions, never ~.

“People desperately looking for love will make exceptions to their parameters for true love just to make “love” happen. However, there is no possible way to be completely passive and expect love to just show up. ... When you least expect it, love will come find you and remind you of who you are.”  
—————————————————————————————————————  
“This totally sucks! Why does Mr. Frond think it’s cool to take our recess time away from us! Why doesn’t he just call the meeting during class like a normal person?” Louise slams her knuckles down on the bleachers, rippling a metal sound across the structure. The audience of head turns was enough to cause a cringe from the young girl. Her brother, sister, and their friends didn’t seem to be quite pleased with the current situation either.

In a sudden and unappreciated turn of events, Mr. Frond called for an emergency meeting with the entirety of the Wagstaff school class in the cafeteria due to a “newly approved event”. Though, knowing her guidance counselor, she expected the event to follow along the lines of a Totally Tubular Rad for Kids anti smoking campaign than something actually entertaining. ~I wish I could just get up and leave.~

Despite her original status as a girl who shan’t be crossed, she’s grown to harbor some sort of a soft spot, actually giving a crap what other people think of her. At the start of the school year, if you even went as far as to look at Louise for too long, you’d be in for a hell of a gut punch. But now, as fourth grade comes to a close, the bunny eared girl hasn’t lost any of her spunk or power, but she’s traded in her rigid attitude for one with sympathy. She knows who to blame it on, but she doesn’t necessarily think it’s bad he enacted that change.

Tina turned to her sister with monotonous concern. Her glasses framed her slightly worried eyes, magnifying them physically and metaphorically. “Well, it’s actually better because if it wasn’t during recess, it would interrupt valuable class time-“

“Yeah, yeah, well all I know is this is gonna be a total snooze cruise.”  
Tammy reapplied her lip gloss, smacking her shiny mouth way too loud for Louise’s preference, but to be fair, most of what Tammy does is too loud for Louise’s preference.  
She slid her stray blonde hair behind her ear and closed her lipstick with a pop. “Why do we even have to come to this dumb thing? Can’t he just announce it on the speakers or send an email or something?”  
“Yeah, this thing is so dumb!”  
“Oh my God, I just said that, Jocelyn!”  
Louise slumped her back against the cafeteria walls, slinging down like a silkworm. “Tina, please remind me why you hang out with these two again?”

Their quarrels were interrupted by an abruptly high pitched feedback from the microphone up front. “Can everyone hear me?” Mr. Frond fondled the nooks and crannies of the budget speaker set up, taking a whopping five minutes to get to a point where he was somewhat audible. 

“Alright, Wagstaff, I know you guys were all excited for recess today, but I have something more exciting for tonight! 

“Recess…all…-day...Today…” Gene shot a wide grin as he remixed Mr. Frond’s voice on his keyboard. “Why, thank you, Mr. Frond!”

Mr. Frond tightened his grip on the microphone, sighing exasperatedly looking up to the sky, as if asking someone or something to save him. “Very funny, Gene. Anyways, I’ve noticed a lot of students have been sitting alone at lunch and in the mornings before school, and I don’t want to name any names, but I’m sure Darryl“  
“Aw…”  
“-and many other students, but mostly Darryl, would appreciate a few more friends. so, I know it’s last minute, but we just got approved to hold our first annual school overnight lockdown tonight in the cafeteria!”

Louise sprung out of her seat in excitement, following the lead of the students around her. ~No. Way.~

Gene stopped in his tracks mid-note. “Did I die or did Mr. Frond actually just say something cool?” 

“Now, don’t get all excited! The lockdown will be 100% supervised, with me and Ms. LaBonz as chaperones. Two teachers is kind of...a small number, but I’m sure that we’ll definitely be able to watch over hundreds of kids with just us safely and surely!” Mr. Frond laughed nervously to the audience, seeming like he was trying to assure himself more so than the crowd of students before him. His spouts of doubt could barely be heard over the roars of cheering let out by the students.

Tina nudged her sister with a dreamy smile plastered on her face. “Maybe if I’m lucky, I’ll be able to sneak into Jimmy Jr’s sleeping bag.”

“Isn’t that kinda creepy?” Despite her older sister having countless composition books filled with “friend fiction” about her and the thousandth time she’s touched Jimmy’s butt, Louise is somehow always fazed by her new ways of getting even more obsessed.

“Hmm, I think once you get a crush on a boy, not including celebrities, you’ll know how I feel.” Tina left Louise with a smirk before turning to check on Zeke, who had just shown up to “nonchalantly” ask Tina to borrow a pen for next period, even though he has a whole case poking out of his bag. 

“Yeah…maybe I will…” 

Louise’s words trailed off as she moved her gaze across the room to Rudy, who was trying - and failing - to get Chloe to talk to him. She seemed to finally turn to him when he brought out some money, which she grabbed with a smile. After a second or two of shared grinning, Chloe dropped the act and went back to filing her nails, leaving Rudy back where he started. ~What a bitch…~

Remember that soft spot we talked about earlier? Yeah, it’s all thanks to one regular sized boy. When Louise got partnered with Rudy on a trip to the museum back in October, the two hit it off immediately, egging Mr. Frond and exploring the indoor Amazon together. Over time, they became practically tied at the hip, but a few months ago, their friendship gradually turned into something more, at least for Louise. Rudy had confessed to Louise his undying love for Chloe Barbash, the princess of their grade. If you were a guy in the fourth grade, and you were into girls, chances were you had liked Chloe at some point or another, so it made complete sense for Rudy to be tantalized by her. 

Louise didn’t appreciate this, however, when she noticed Chloe not only didn’t return Rudy’s feelings, but was also taking advantage of his affection to pass her classes. After Rudy found out Chloe didn’t like him back, he was so heartbroken, Louise couldn’t stand to see him like that. She couldn’t look at her best friend so close to tears and not do something about it. Plus, it made for a good excuse, right?

So, right smack in the middle of the playground, she pulled Rudy into a harsh, yet emotionally powered first kiss. He didn’t kiss back, but he didn’t pull away either. Louise took this with a grain of salt, though; he’d probably take a punch and then say sorry for getting in your fists way. 

Ever since, they’ve still maintained their friendship, and, as Louise’s request, never mentioned the kiss, or that day as a whole, again. She doesn’t want to deal with having to hear Rudy tell her he hated the kiss, because for her, it was probably the best day in her life.

Anyways, there Louise was, entranced by Rudy’s every movement. At this point, he had given up trying to catch Chloe’s attention and was instead regaining his breath in his backpack. 

That’s one of the cutest things to Louise about him - he’s so fretful about inconveniencing others that he doesn’t even take his inhaler out from inside his bag just so he doesn’t bother anyone. She doesn’t mind the sound, and she reminds him of this all the time, but he insists it’s what he “should do”.

There’s so many things she adores about him, everything from his appearance to the slight nuances she’s discovered over the school year. His orange buzz cut seems underwhelming, but the shaky forehead hairline and uneven fuzz that pops out just days after a new haircut is so endearing to her.

~Rudy picked at his fingers, pinching at the small webbing between his left thumb and index a little harder than normal. “Yeah, my mom works at the only barber shop in town, and my dad hates seeing her, so we can’t exactly go. But it’s okay! I don’t really mind my hair, honestly!” He stared down at the desk table directly below him. His mind seemed to travel elsewhere for just a heartbeat, before blinking and looking back up at his math partner. “Sorry, Louise, what’d you ask again?”~

His socks are white, always bleached, and just about knee high length, something his mom told him would make him look better to girls (Louise agrees with his mom on that one). His shoes are triple knotted, just to avoid an unnecessary trip, and his blue shirts always have an unusually large and almost laughable amount of lint, probably from his dad’s ever-so-barely improving laundry skills. 

~“I wonder if he knows you’re supposed to seperate socks from shirts, heh. I kinda wanna tell him, but, y’know he tries so hard, I’d feel so...bad…” Rudy’s voice ran as he brought his head into his Jansport, shoving his plastic lifeline back in his mouth. Louise never fails to notice he still keeps it in the case she got him.~

She keeps watching as he moves his head out of his backpack and back to the air. He seems to be full of energy, with his eyes darting across the cafeteria, like he’s trying to spot something. Rudy’s eyes finally meet Louise’s, and once they do, his efforts cease, creasing his face to grin brightly back at her and wave. His smile resembles the wide laugh a dog might make when it’s really happy, his eyes and nose scrunching to make space for widened teeth.

Once Zeke leaves, pen secured softly in hand, Tina returns to Louise to tell her the ten new friend fiction ideas she thinks the lockdown will inspire, but instead of the annoyed Louise she expected to see (after all, Louise isn’t the lovey doves type), she comes to face her sister, arm half raised, staring across the room at either a random boy, a random girl, or Rudy. Tina assumes she’s looking at Rudy. 

Louise’s face resembles that of a child who lost their toy, but before they’ve begun to cry. That look of “where’d my toy go?” before fully accepting it’s lost. Tina notices Rudy’s talking to a clean cut girl with unbelievably smooth ginger hair. For a moment, she thinks she can smell the Pantene from here.

Tina leans in and taps her sisters shoulder, sparking a jolt from the younger girl. “Gosh, knock next time, why don’t you?”

“That’s what I thought I- that doesn’t matter, what matters is how you look right now/“

“What?” Louise looks down at her outfit, picking up part of the front edge of her dress, followed by pulling down one of her ears as she goes cross eyed to check it. ~Looks fine to me.~ “Teen, what are you talking about?”

“I mean your face. You look like your heart just got run over, pooped on, and then run over again.” Tina narrows her vision at Rudy, who’s currently flexing his arms while trying to pick up his backpack strap with one finger, not succeeding in the process whatsoever. “Were you staring at Rudy?”

Louise’s face flushes crimson, and the corners of her eyes feel like they’re going red. She didn’t think she had been that obvious. “What? Nooo, I’m just staring at, uh, Ms. LaBonz! I mean, wow have you seen her hair? She must’ve gotten it done or something!”

“Louise, Ms. Labonz left ten minutes ago.” 

The younger girl’s eyes widened even further.

“Actually…” Tina stands up and scans the room. “Rudy just left, we’re actually the last people left in here.” She knows when something’s up, especially when it’s with her siblings. Louise usually doesn’t seem so vulnerable. Only in times of deep cavities and lost hats has Tina ever seen her sister look so...hurt.

Shutting her eyes slowly with an exasperated sigh, Louise brings her eyes back open and up to Tina, her ears drooping in unison with her body language. 

“Tina, if I tell you something, do you promise not to tell anyone?”

Now THIS is what Tina wanted to hear. “Of course, Louise, Sisters Before Misters and Non-related Sisters.”

“I…” Well, here goes nothing. “I think I like Rudy.”

“Regular-sized or Pocket-sized?”

“Regular…”

Tina’s eyes brighten with excitement. Finally, all her friend fictions she’s written about them can come true! “Louise, you have to tell him!”

Louise’s face immediately shifts to one of panic. “Ohhh, no, no, no, I’m good, I-“

“You should tell him today at the lockdown!”

“No!” She gets closer in proximity to Tina, until their faces are less than half a foot from each other. “I cannot tell Rudy how I feel. It’s gonna make our friendship awkward, and besides, he doesn’t even like me.”

Tina tilts her head and looks up at the ceiling. “Hmm…” Facing back down to Louise, her expression reveals a sense of skepticism. “Louise, have you ever even told him you’re interested in people? Like actual, non-celebrity people? Cuz I didn't even know until one minute ago, and I live with you.” 

The bunny eared girl facetiously ponders her question, saying with a negatively sing-song voice. “Well...if by ‘have i ever even told him I’m interested in people’, you mean when I tell him love is a product of commercialism and it’s suckish, and that I only kissed him because I felt bad for him, then yes...I have told him.”

“Louise!” The older teen couldn’t believe what she just heard. “How is he supposed to like you if he thinks you’ll never like him!”

“He should just know!”

“If you know he likes girls, and you’re still too scared to tell him because you think he’ll reject you, why would he tell you if he’s under the believe that you will undoubtedly reject him because you think love is stupid? You’re practically telling him you’d think he’s stupid for liking you!” At this point, Tina was practically screaming, but for Tina, “screaming” is just raising her voice slightly.

“I…” ~Shoot...Tina’s right…~ “I don’t know, I didn’t really think that far…but it doesn’t matter, he’s into Chloe, not me. Chloe tricked Rudy into thinking she likes him even though she only does nice things for him so he’ll give her quiz answers…”

Tina let out a breath of relief, followed by a smile. Louise squinted at her older sister. “What’s so funny?”

“Nothing’s funny, but the situation is obvious...he’s probably only into Chloe because he thinks it’s the only chance he has at romance. What fourth grader wouldn’t go for the most popular girl in his class if she liked him too? Especially when the person he actually likes-“ Tina nudges Louise’s slumped arm, attached to a face expressing nothing short of pained regret and realization. “-doesn’t act like she likes him too.”

As much as she wanted to act like her sister was wrong, she was completely right. Louise couldn’t just expect Rudy to express feelings for her when she constantly makes it look like she’d laugh in his face for having emotions. 

“Alright Tina...I’ll try and tell him tonight at the lock-in, okay?”

Her older sister smiles proudly, glad she was able to convince her sister to actually make a romantic advance one someone. “You’re gonna do great Louise, plus when we get home, before we leave to go back to school, you can practice on me as to how you’ll tell him.” 

Louise nods her head, and Tina gives Louise a quick hug before walking off the bleachers to start heading to class. The younger girl, on the other hand, stays stuck in her seat. She doubts he even likes her though, but she’s never been one to not take risks. ~Tonight’s gonna be one hell of a night.~

As Tina stepped off the bleachers, she thought about her sister, and how ecstatic she is to help her out tonight. She believes Louise will be able to tell him, after all she even...wait a second…

“Hold on, Louise kissed Rudy?”


	2. Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Louise feat: not realizing Rudy is hinting at her harder than she’s hinting at him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry I just really had to throw in some supportive Bob in this one. The lock-in officially starts next chapter!!! 
> 
> PS: This is how I envision Louise reacted prior to the events of that one official BB comic where Tina writes friend fiction about her and Rudy being spies.

After school, the Belcher kids, along with practically the rest of the students at Wagstaff, couldn’t wait to get home, pack, and go to school (excited to go to school? A first for many.)

Louise, though, was by far the least excited out of the three. Of course she wanted to spend the night at Wagstaff. ~Come on, imagine the pranks I could pull!~. But on the other hand, she was losing her mind imagining how Rudy was gonna react to her telling him how she feels. Even though Louise knows her crush is the kindest boy she’s ever met, a kid with more heart than anyone at their school (no, probably the entire planet), she can’t imagine him responding any better than dropping her as his best friend and never speaking to her again.

She even tried to drop hints after the assembly in math, but he seemed too preoccupied in making sure he threw himself at Chloe before any other boy got the chance.

~”-and so, once we all left the cafeteria, I ran to Chloe and asked if she was planning on going to the lock-in, and when she kept walking and ignored me, I assumed it was a yes.” Rudy lightly nibbled on his pencil, speaking to Louise with a special sparkle in his eyes, one she wishes he had towards her instead of Chloe Barbitch.  
Louise spun her pencil in her fingers, twirling it between each stub. “Yeah, I get that…”  
“You get what?”  
“Well…” Louise felt she had to start somewhere, right? “I mean yeah, I get liking someone so much you wanna see them all the time…”  
Rudy stared at her with wide eyes. “I you what? I thought you didn’t like people.”  
Louise half heartedly chuckled. “Eh, that’s a little outdated.” She turned to glance at her crush, who was still staring into her eyes.  
“Oh I…never knew that. You should’ve let me know, Louise.”   
“Please,” Louise’s laugh grew fuller. “I don’t have to tell anyone anything. You’re lucky I’m even opening up this much.” She gulps deeply, worried she might be reverting back to her usual harshness. “I mean...yeah, I probably should trust you with everything, you are my best friend and all.”  
He kept his gaze at her consistent. “Yeah…”  
Louise looked deep into his eyes, trying to find some type of clue as to what he was thinking. “Yeah…”  
Suddenly, after a few longer-than-what-should-be-possible seconds, his eyes darted across the room to the front door of the room, where a familiar face came into the class, looking for an open desk to sit in. “Oh, Chloe! I’ll get your seat for you!” Rudy stood up and ran away from Louise and towards the human embodiment of a cupcake, stealing them from their trance.  
“See you later Roods...”~

The moment they all entered the house, Tina wasted no time getting Louise prepared for what was going to be the night to change her life. Right as the pigtailed girl was about to open her bedroom door, the older girl grabbed her sister and dragged her into her own, horse figurine filled room. 

“Tina! I’m trying to relax before my life is over, thank you very much!” Louise pulled her arm out of her sister’s hold and dropped her bag down, which came easier to her than she was expecting, since Tina was already headed to her bookshelf, seeming to feature a massive collection of...~oh no~.

The older girl flashed a weighted grin at her sister’s dismay as she looked through her library of friend fiction. “Hmm...R, R, R.”

Louise groaned, hoping she was wrong. “Tina, PLEASE don’t tell me you’re looking for friend fiction.”

“Oh, I’m not looking for friend fiction.” Louise let out a breath she didn’t even know she was holding. ~oh what a relief~. “I’m looking for friend fiction of you and Rudy.”

Shit.

Before Louise could object, her sister threw a surplus of composition books onto her bed, organizing them in an order that Louise can’t sort out. There’s at least 11 books laying on her comforter right now, and that’s lowballing.

“Alright, are you looking for your love story to look like Twilight or something more passionate?” Tina turned to her sister with genuine curiousity.

“First, don’t refer to it as a love story or I’m gonna barf, and second, I don’t even know which type I want when I don’t even know if he feels the same way...and wait, isn’t Twilight already super romantic?’ 

The older girl shrugs. “Eh, not enough butts.”

Tina plows through her books until she stops at one titled Collection. “This one’s perfect. If you don’t know what you’re looking for, you can start out small and then figure it out as you go. That actually might be better for you, you tend to act on impulse.” Panicked, she slowly faced her younger sister with hesitant concern, slightly worried Louise was gonna get offended, but instead, Louise seemed busy waiting for Tina’s next piece of advice. “Here, go crazy.” She tossed the book over to her younger sister, who gazed at it like an animal she’d never seen before.

Louise stared intently at the Collection book, slowly opening it to find pages and pages of long and, frankly, well written work detailing different ways Louise can tell Rudy she likes him. “‘Rudolph, you make my world go round. The flowers are always in bloom when you’re around’...this doesn’t sound like me at all!”.

“Some of these aren’t exactly canon compliant, go to page 92.”

~oh God.~ The bunny eared girl flipped to the aforementioned page, reaching a tale of the two of them stuck down in a well, with no one to come save them for another few hours. “‘Louise, what are you saying’ Louise pulls on her pigtails, hearing strands snap in the process. ‘Rudy, I don’t know how else to tell you this for you to understand what I mean. You’re cute and nice and perfect and you mean so much to me but I don’t even know how to say it. I don’t even think I can say it’s love since we’re so young, but God if there’s anything close to that I can have, I promise you it’s how I feel about you…’” She read the pages with wavering breaths. It was surreal to see her emotions spread out on paper so...accurately.

Tina gaped at Louise with expectant eyes. “So?” 

“This…is everything I’ve been feeling...what happens after this?” Louise distractedly sat down on the edge of her bed, not noticing the clean, unfolded laundry she had half plopped on. “You’re an oracle, Teen, what happens?” 

“Well, after you confess, he kisses you, and the two of you share your emotions in ways words cannot.” 

Louise notices the remaining bulk of the chapter with skepticism. “Well, what happens in the other 7 pages?” 

Tina rips the book out of her sisters hands. “Oh nothing, that’s not important.”

Without warning, Bob opens the door with quick pace, sounding like a controlled mix of anger, confusion, disbelief, and concern. “Tina, what’s this ‘super duper supervised lock-in’ Gene keeps ta- Oh, hi Louise, what are you girts chatting about?”

The young girl couldn’t have rushed to respond any faster, but her brain went blank on a lie to tell. “We’re just talking about, uh…”

“Louise was asking me on advice for how to tell Rudy she likes him.” Tina cuts her sister off with indifferent monotone, not even noticing she just exposed Louise to their dad.

“TINA!?”

“What?”

“YOU WEREN’T SUPPOSED TO TELL DAD!” She could literally feel her blood boiling, filling up her cheeks with unadulterated rage and humiliation. “Now another person knows! It was supposed to be just you!”. The more people who found out about her crush on Rudy meant the more people who could make fun of her for it and remind her how stupid she is for having feelings.

“Whoa, Louise, you know you can come to me about anything, especially crushes.” Bob lightly shut the door and walked over to the foot of Tina’s bed, where he sat to face Louise.

Louise stood up as her dad sat down, rigidly walking to the other side of the room.“No, no, nope we are not doing this today.” 

“Louise, I know I’m bad when it comes to explaining a lot of things to you guys...I still haven’t even had the birds and the bees talk with Gene...or Tina.”

“Oh I’m good.”

Bob grimaced. “Great, I’m glad you learned about that from...wherever you did...but look, Louise, the point is that I, at one point, was a boy in fourth grade just like Rudy. I know how they think and I know that if he’s really your friend, and he actually cares about you, which he does, he won’t be mad. Worst case, he won’t feel the same way, but there’s no case where he wouldn’t want to be your friend anymore.”

“You...really think so?” Louise’s face brightened with soft hope. 

“I know so, sweetie. I came in here though because Gene mentioned Mr. Frond announced a lock-in tonight?” He expected to hear a riot of laughter, but was instead surprised to see them respond in agreement. “Wow. I can’t believe Mr. Frond actually thought of something fun.”

Louise snorted. “I know right.”

Bob’s expression lit up with an epiphany. “Oh, speaking of, you know that lock-in would be the perfect place for you to tell Rudy how you feel, right?”

She groaned at his outdated idea. “Yes, dad, I’m already planning on telling him tonight.” The bunny eared girl stretched as she stood up, grabbing her backpack off of Tina’s chair. “I’d rather just rip off the bandaid now than wait till later.”

“That’s the spirit!” Tina smiled with genuine happiness, Louise’s sarcasm going in one ear and straight out the other. 

“Yeah, yeah, I’m gonna go pack and remember what I looked like before everything changed…” 

Louise walked out of Tina’s bedroom to the whispered cheers and hyping up remarks Bob and her sister voiced for her. She left the door open as she treaded to her room to get changed. Once she got in, she walked over to her desk, facing down at where a polaroid picture of her and Rudy laid on top of a handmade 6 month friendaversary card.

She sighed.

“...for the worse.”


	3. Three

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Lock-In begins!

6:30 PM - Outside the Lock-In

“And don’t forget to pepper spray ya pillow! You never know who’s gonna try and snatch ya in ya sleep!” 

Louise rolled her eyes, trying to pull her face out of her mom’s Death Grip of smooches. “Yes, I am very aware of how to avoid getting kidnapped, thank you.” 

The Belcher family stood outside their parked car in front of Wagstaff, where hundreds of kids excitedly rushed in as far away from their families as possible. Just as promised, the only “security” in sight was Mr. Frond trying - and failing - to stop every kid that’s running, and Ms. Labonz smoking a cigarette in the corner between the dumpster and the faculty parking lot. ~Thank God there’s, like, no adults here. Perfect for pranking!~

“Oh oh, and ya can’t miss the moon tonight! I heard if ya look at it tonight at like nine pm, it’s gonna tell ya ‘hey stop starin’ at me, I’m the moon!” Linda cackled at her own nonsensical joke, resulting in a singular “heh” from Tina and a laugh track sound from Gene’s keyboard. Louise was too caught staring at her shoes, deep in thought, to respond.

Louise couldn’t stop running all the different possible ways tonight might go down through her head.

In her highest hopes, she envisions telling Rudy how she feels, his hand held in hers as he runs out of breath - not from his asthma, but from his heart pounding so loudly in his ears he can’t do anything but stand still and tell her he’s felt the same way. That he’s always felt the same way. 

However, in her more depressing thoughts, which tend to be the larger portion in this department, she envisions telling Rudy how she feels, his hand snatched from hers as she tries to grab it, wanting to hold onto as much of him as she can for the little time she has left. As he runs out of breath - not from his asthma, but from the anger boiling inside him. From the humiliation that she put him through, being his friend even though she liked him, as if she was just trying to find a way in, and then she can’t do anything but stand still, aghast, telling him she’s sorry.

She knows telling him is what she should do, but she decided against forcing it. She’s not gonna throw Rudy in a room and confess months of stupid lovey gushy emotions in a calculated script like they’re actors in a stupid romance movie. It’s gonna happen naturally...she hopes.

“Alright, Lin, that’s enough bad jokes for one night. You kids just remember to be safe and don’t do anything stupid.” Bob gave each of his kids a peck on the forehead, leaning back afterwards to return in their car (how could Bob and Linda pass up the opportunity for a romantic evening?). We’ll see you tomorrow morning when we pick you up, okay?”

Tina spotted Jimmy Jr. from a distance and knew it was time to set her plan into action. “Yep, bye mom and dad.” Before her parents could respond, she was already half a parking lot away.  
“See you tomorrow, when I become a man!”  
“Gene.” Bob sticks the keys in ignition and starts the car, ready to leave when he spots his youngest daughter drooping. “Hey and, Louise?”  
She tilts her head up to face him, not even vocalizing a response.  
“Remember what we talked about, okay? You’ve got this.”  
Louise manages to put on a genuine smile for the first time that night.

6:34 PM: Inside the Lock-In

Once she got inside the school, she immediately felt slightly out of body. The school she was so used to seeing in bright, day colors, fell dimmer with the windows reflecting the night sky. Students ditched traditional backpacks for totes and suitcases, pajama pants and toothpaste tubes peeking out of mesh pockets. The speakers that traditionally played morning announcements played just about outdated music ~Hopefully they aren’t planning on looping this song, right? I can’t listen to more than two choruses of Baby Shark…~ 

The classroom doors were wide open so students could work on “group or one on one friendship formations” in private, and the cafeteria was set up with a pink arrangement of seemingly-school-district-donated sleeping bags on one side, a thick white line of tape down the middle, and a blue arrangement of the same bags on another side.~Way to be gender neutral, Wagstaff~. Two of the sleeping bags seemed pushed closer together than the rest of the 3 foot separated bags (probably for Andy and Ollie, Louise guessed).

“Dang, what if I wanted the pink bag. They can’t just decide for me! This is a criminal offense!”

Louise laughed at the facetiously angry comment and turned to the source of the sound, already knowing who she was expecting to see. 

“I know right, Roods, I was thinking the same thing.” She picked up a crumbled scrap paper of pre-algebra notes from the tile, tossing it down the empty cafeteria. “Tyranny!”

Rudy poked his head through the open door, watching the papers shot dissipate into small, snail speed tumbles on the floor, before finally resting between two cracks in the ground. He leaned over laughing, breathlessly smiling at Louise, placing one hand on his bent knee and the other on her shoulder. “Heheh, hope we don’t get in trouble for littering!” 

Louise’s cheeks speckled pink as she tried her hardest not to focus on how unusually warm Rudy’s hand felt on her shoulder compared to anyone else’s. Once he leaned back up, removing his hand, Louise fought the disappointment of that missing warmth. She watched as he stretched his back, cracking it in a few unorthodox spots, before finally standing straight up, a sight she never gets exhausted seeing.

Her Regular Sized pal had had a bit of a Big Time growth spurt, so instead of being an inch shorter than her, he’s now a couple inches taller. His clothes are still the same, but his black skechers were replaced with larger converse high tops. She wants to say she hates feeling like he’s bigger than her, but Louise isn’t one to lie.

Louise hadn’t even noticed, but everyone else in the hall had already left to do who knows what, leaving the pair as the two remaining souls nearby. Could this be the moment? Is this when she should tell him?

“You know, I think Chloe would really like the shade of pink those sleeping bags are, do you think so?”

Maybe not.

Louise glared at Rudy. “Uh, what?”

“I mean,” Rudy rubbed his knuckles together, having outgrown his shoes but not the shy attitude Louise can’t get enough of. “If you were, uh, I mean, do you think it’s a nice color?” 

~Was he gonna say if I was Chloe?~ “Uh, yeah, yeah, yeah it’s a nice color, but you know I don’t exactly like Barbash, right?” Louise prodded at the topic, one they usually don’t cover.

Rudy’s knuckle rubbing suddenly stopped, his eyes widening in surprise. “I didn’t know you didn’t like her…”

~Shit. Did I not tell him that? I thought it was implied.~ 

The boy repeated. “You always listen to me when I talk about her, I just assumed you were interested too...I’m sorry Louise-“

“No, no Rudy don’t be sorry.” The bunny eared girl dropped her resent in favor for attempted compassion. “Roods, I listen to you talk about her because I care about you, you’re always there for me when I wanna steal Borobu cards in the middle of the night, and even though you tell me it stresses you out, you always come along anyways. You’re there for me so…” She let out a sorry sigh. “I should be there for you too...I just thought you knew I didn’t like her after the whole…”

“We- the whole what? Her crush asked with genuine wonder.

~Oh no, God how am I supposed to bring this up.~ “You know the whole, Valentine’s Day thing?” Louise hoped he’d get the hint, which he seemed to catch immediately, his face heating up red and his body stiffing up. Probably a negative response, Louise supposed.

“Oh yeah of course...I still- yeah, um…” Rudy’s face grew redder, and he began to move his legs a bit along with his shaking hands, words coming out harder than before. “I know you did it just because you felt bad for me, and I…” He parted his mouth to continue, but then started on a different note. “-but Chloe explained to me she only didn’t kiss me because she didn’t get an A on the test before in history because I accidentally told her the wrong letter, but she says next time she’ll do it!”

Louise squinted, trying to see if she heard him right. “Says? Dude, Valentine’s Day was three months ago, we’ve had like, a gazillion tests since then.”

He looked at the ceiling, wall, floor, doors, anywhere and everywhere but Louise. “Yeah, she keeps saying next time, I don’t know why...look Louise, I’m sorry you’re mad at her, but she’s really...not that bad. She really likes me, and I think she’s the only girl at this school who does. Maybe if I can actually get a girlfriend, my parents might be-“

“Excuse me? Rudy and Louise, what are you doing alone in the hall?” The pair turned to face an irritated Frond. “We can’t have any unsupervised mingling, you know? Head over to the art room, now. That’s where all the other fourth graders are, and where you should’ve been this whole time!”

Louise stared worriedly back and forth between her friend and the heated guidance counselor. “Mr. Frond, can you please give us like one minute, we’re-“

“No ifs, ands, or buts, only yours in the art room now!”

Louise made sure to put a pin on this conversation. She knew Rudy and the relationship he has with his parents are a sore subject, but he always tried his best to avoid the topic. This time, HE brought it up, and Louise knew if he actually wanted to talk about iit, it must be important.

~Welp.~ Louise sighed, following her friend to the art classroom with her hands deep in her pockets. ~This is gonna be a long night.~


End file.
